Culinary herbs add a whole lot of micronutrients as well as flavor to food. Not only does adding herbs to your foods draw out flavors and improves taste, but you are also adding wellness-supporting herbal properties to what you’re eating! To our senses, herbs add different levels of flavor and scent notes, bring more color to our plates, and can change the way we interact with the earth all around us. 

Many of the herbs commonly found in our kitchen spice racks have a variety of different actions that they perform when ingested.  Some are aromatics (you guessed it, they are highly fragrant), and soothe our nervous system to “rest-and-digest,”  helping us to digest and assimilate our food. A few common aromatic herbs are basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary, ginger, fennel, cinnamon, black pepper, and mint. Add these to fatty foods to help lighten them up and ease digestion.  

Other herbs are categorized as bitters, also aiding in digestion and nutrient assimilation by increasing digestive secretions throughout the GI tract. Think of when you eat something bitter, and the way your mouth reacts by increasing salivation. This happens all the way down the digestive system with bitters! Some common kitchen bitter herbs are rosemary, orange peel, chicory, endive, radicchio, dandelion greens, some lettuces, coffee, and tea. Have a nice bitter greens salad at the beginning of a meal to support digestion.

And lastly, a very important herbal action that is on our minds a lot right now are herbs that keep us healthy.  Many antimicrobial herbs have been used by our ancestors to preserve food (especially meat), and these antimicrobials also play a huge role in keeping our respiratory tract healthy and can even break a fever or shorten an infection. Think cinnamon, thyme, oregano, horseradish, fenugreek, black pepper, ginger, sage, cumin, cayenne, and garlic. Try adding these into a soup towards the end of the cooking process to preserve the oils that contain these highly concentrated antimicrobial properties. 

And here is a great herb heavy recipe we’ve been loving!

.💙BLUEBERRY BASIL MUFFINS💙 (GF)

* 2 1/2 cup Blanched almond flour

* 1/4 cup maple syrup

* 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

* 1/4 tsp Sea salt

* 1/3 cup Coconut oil

* 1/3 cup Unsweetened almond milk

* 3 large Eggs (try subbing flax eggs if vegan)

* 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

* 3/4 cup Blueberries

* 2 tsp Cinnamon

* 1/4 cup sliced almonds (optional)

* 5 basil leaves, finely chopped

* Zest of 1/2 lime (this brings allll the flavor, don’t be scared!).

Mix dry ingredients together, then add wet ingredients.

Bake at 350* for 20-25 minutes.

💙